42 participants from government, NGOs, academic institutes and development partners completed the five-day long Bangladesh Flagship Based Course on Health System Strengthening and Universal Health Coverage (UHC).
Facilitated by national and international experts in health systems strengthening, the course engaged participants in structured and strategic reflections about what it takes to move Bangladesh health systems towards universal health coverage. The course covered essential topics on health systems reforms, including health financing, the essential service package, related implementation issues, provider payment mechanisms and equity.
Dr Valeria de Oliveira Cruz, Team Leader, Health Systems, WHO noted that this course aims at supporting decision makers to better understand the mechanisms required to build a robust health system, to be able to predict the effects of different policies on the performance and to efficiently use the ‘control knobs’ in order to achieve Universal Health Coverage.
Best practices and global experiences helped participants to conceptualize different models that can reshape health systems for better health outcomes. This course in addition to have generated a better understanding of the policies and strategies that can be employed for reaching UHC, provided a platform to build greater cohesion among key health stakeholders in Bangladesh.
The curriculum was customized for the Bangladesh context following the original flagship course developed by Harvard University and the World Bank and was designed for participants who are engaged in the process of national health system reforms. The course has been organized in Bangladesh since 2016.
Owen Smith, Senior Economist at the World Bank, pointed out the low level of public spending on health in relation to GDP, and emphasized that significant increases in government funding for health would be essential to achieve the health related SDGs and universal health coverage.
Chief Guest, Md. Asadul Islam, Secretary to the Government and Director General of Bangladesh Karmachari Kallyan Board, said that the flagship course would help to build the capacity of the participants in operationalizing the National Health Financing Strategy, the Essential Service Package and quality service delivery while strengthening health systems in an effective manner.
Chair, Dr. Mohd. Shahadt Hossain Mahmud, Director General of HEU said that flagship course would help addressing the challenges in the health systems of Bangladesh and enable the participants to contribute efficiently for moving towards universal health coverage and attain health related SDG targets by 2030.
The course was organized by the Health Economics Unit (HEU), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare with support from the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Bank and the Department of International Development (DFID) Bangladesh in association with James P Grant School of Public Health (JPGSPH).
